Absolution
by 5t4rG4z3r
Summary: SG1 brings back a hurt girl from another planet, and inadvertantly starts a chain of events beyond their control.
1. Findings

The gate opened with its usual kawoosh. O'Neill looked at it. Somehow it never ceased to amaze him that in four seconds he could travel hundreds, even thousands of light years away. His team entered the gate room, slowly, one at a time. Daniel, of course, was last.

"Ya ready, Danny boy?" Jack asked sarcastically. This was a routine reconnaissance mission. A goa'uld occupied planet, go in, check things out, return. No biggie. Daniel looked up briefly, muttered something, and then went back to fumbling with his gear.

"Great, let's move out."

He walked up to the gate, paused to admire its quiet power, and then stepped through to another planet. His team followed close behind. It was dark when they arrived.

"I guess daylight savings doesn't apply here," Jack muttered. By the light of the gate he could see Carter's grin.

Daniel stepped through and the gate whooshed closed. They stood there in darkness for a moment, trying to get their bearings. The gate stood in a clearing, surrounded by a few trees, and a small hill. Not much to look at. Carter was the first one down the steps.

"Oh god, sir, I think you should see this," she called. She crouched down next to a dark figure on the ground. O'Neill stepped closer and saw that it was a body, laying face down in the dirt, hands and feet bound. Carter rolled the body onto its side to get a clear view of its face.

It belonged to a badly beaten girl. O'Neill could hardly see in this light, but she seemed to be human, young, maybe mid teens. She had long straight orange-red hair, and a stubbornness to her face that spoke volumes about the hardship she had suffered, probably at the hands of the goa'uld. she wore a simple silver necklace, with a charm of the point of origin of this planet.

"She's barely alive, sir," Sam reported.

Teal'c had moved away from the group to secure a perimeter. Whatever, whoever, had harmed the girl could still be in the area. He saw no movement in the tree line, but a faint glow over the top of the hill. He went to investigate. He stood at the top of the hill.

"O'Neill," he called. "There is a village here."

"Great," O'Neill called back. He turned to Daniel. "Daniel, go check it out. Take Teal'c." At Daniel's questioning look he added, "It's a Gould planet, he'll reinforce your authority."

If Daniel was insulted by his implied lack of authority he didn't show it. He turned to join Teal'c at the top of the hill.

"Danny," Jack called to his back. "See if they'll talk to you. Find out what snake rules here, who the girl is, and why they just dumped her here half dead."

Daniel nodded and he and Teal'c disappeared over the ridge. Jack turned to Carter.

"Can she be moved?" he asked. Sam looked down at the girl.

"I'm not sure what damage it'll do, but I know we can't try to treat her here, whatever hurt her before might come back."

"Alright, we take her to the SGC then," Jack answered.

He crouched down by Sam and between the two of them they gently lifted the girl, dialed the gate, and returned to earth.


	2. Desperation

The gate opened and Daniel and Teal'c stepped through into the gate room where Jack was waiting to greet them.

"Daniel," Jack said. "What'd you find?"

"The goa'uld who rules there is Isis. The local people are terrified of her and live in constant fear of her return. They though we were her servants, scouts of a sort, who came to see that they were worshipping her well. Teal'c's presence really confirmed that for them. According to Egyptian mythology Isis was the goddess of-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. What about the girl?"

"I was getting there."

"Well, you were taking too long."

"Apparently once every year, about this time, Isis demands an offering. If it doesn't please her she has threatened to destroy the entire planet, that's why they're so paranoid."

"So the girl was a human sacrifice?"

"Essentially, yeah."

Daniel paused, his words really sinking in for the first time. He would never stop being amazed by the goa'uld's endless cruelty. He looked straight at Jack.

"How is she?" he asked quietly.

Suddenly Jack looked worn out, as if he'd seen too much pain in life to continue. Daniel had seen that look before, on Abydos the first time. He'd hoped he'd never have to see it again.

"She's still unconscious," he answered sadly. "Frasier's taking care of her, but she's pretty bad off."

"I'd like to talk to her when she wakes up," Daniel said, trying to be optimistic but wondering if she'd ever wake up.

"I know," Jack said. A simple reminder that the two men had been through a lot together.

Janet looked at the girl on the hospital bed sadly. She hated not being able to help but at this point there was nothing she could do. Either the girl would wake up, or she wouldn't. Janet had no control over that.

She sighed. They all kept calling her 'the girl.' Janet wondered what her name was, what her story was, and if she'd ever be able to tell it. _Maybe, _She thought. _Just maybe she'll get her second chance. _She left to check on patients in other rooms.

The girl listened to her leave. She waited a moment to be certain that she was alone. She opened her eyes slowly. A guard was standing at the doorway, other than him, she was alone. She coughed quietly. The guard spun and looked at her, shocked.

"Frasier to the infirmary," he radioed, then came over to look at her.

"Water," she muttered. He filled a glass and then leaned over to hand it to her. She hit him hard in the head and slipped his gun from its holster.

She slid out of bed just as Janet entered the room. Quickly taking in what had happened, Janet hit the alarm, calling security to the infirmary.

The girl seemed to come to life with the alarms. In no time at all she crossed the distance to Janet and grabbed her, holding the gun to her head.

"What is this place? What are you doing to me?" she screamed. "I won't take any more experiments. I won't! You tell her I'll die before I'll let her run any more experiments on me!"

Janet tried her best to calm the girl.

"It's alright," she said. "We're not going to run any experiments, we just want to help you. Please. Calm down and we'll figure out what's going on together. We won't hurt you, I promise."

Security swarmed into the room. The girl seemed to get even angrier, if that was possible. She fired a few shots into the ceiling to accentuate her point.

"Don't lie to me! She sent you, didn't she? She's making you do this. I won't, I just won't!"

"She?" Janet asked. "Who is she?"

By now security had surrounded the two of them. Janet shook her head at the guards, she didn't want to hurt the girl, just to calm her down.

"The goddess, the evil one. She sent you; don't act like you don't know."

"I don't know anything about a goddess," Janet soothed. Security was getting restless, they weren't going to put up with this for much longer, especially since she had fired. Janet tried desperately to keep them at bay. "You're on earth. At the SGC. One of our exploration teams found you, you were hurt. They brought you here to take care of you, to help you."

The girl looked startled, but still disbelieving, at this information. "Earth?" she asked.

"Yes," Janet replied, finally she was getting through. The girls hand relaxed on the gun a bit. "It's our planet, you're safe here."

At this point the girl completely released Janet; she seemed to be unable to believe what she was hearing. Her hand went to her necklace.

"A different planet," she stammered. "But...no!"

Her fierce energy returned and she lifted the gun again, this time to her own head. "No! Take me back! Take me back now! I can't be here!"

Now that Janet was safe, security moved in. the girl struggled and screamed even louder. "No! Don't touch me! You're killing them! You're killing them! They're all going to die if you don't take me back!"

One of the guards managed to slip the gun from her hand. Realizing she could no longer fight, she broke down, crying and continually whispering. "Take me back. You're killing them."

The guards led her out of the infirmary to a holding cell.


	3. Homecoming

SG-1, Hammond and Frasier sat in the briefing room. They had just finished reviewing the tape of the incident in the infirmary and were now watching the video of the holding cell. The girl was sitting on the ground, looking down. Her hair hid her face from the cameras, but there was a small shake to her body that let them know she had been crying.

"Any suggestions, people?" Hammond asked, turning back to the table.

"Yeah," Daniel started. Jack rolled his eyes, this was exactly Daniel's sort of situation. Helping the damsel in distress always got complicated whenever Daniel was involved. "We do what she wants. We let her go back."

"Oh, no we don't. She stays right where she is," Jack countered.

"Jack, she's a little girl who wants to go home."

"Daniel, she's a security threat that tried to kill our CMO."

"She's obviously terrified, what if she's right? What if keeping her here isn't such a good idea?"

"What if it is?"

"Jack!"

"Daniel!"

"Gentlemen, please," Hammond interrupted. "Dr. Frasier, what is her current condition?"

All eyes turned to Janet. "Physically, she's been badly hurt, but she'll recover. I found high levels of naquadah and other protiens in her blood, but they don't seem to be interfering with her body in any negative way. Emotionally? Who knows?"

"General, we need to help her," Daniel began again. "She seems to think that this is an experimental facility, and that we were sent by 'her' to run some sort of experiments on people. Judging by her behavior, this obviously isn't the first time that's happened. Now I'm assuming she means Isis, which means that Isis uses this planet's population as lab rats."

"I have heard of such a thing being done by the goa'uld before," Teal'c confirmed.

"No wonder they're so afraid of her," Sam added.

"But then after Dr. Frasier convinced her that she was not on her planet anymore, she seemed even more terrified, but in a different way. Like she was the cause, not the victim. She said we're killing them."

"How descriptive," Jack scowled. "The girl's dangerous and she needs help."

"Rheya."

"What?"

"Her name is Rheya."

"Oh so we're on a first name basis now, are we Danny?"

"Jack, we brought her here. Whatever it is that's scaring her so much about being here, we need to fix it."

"I agree," Hammond put in. "I'm sending SG teams 1 and 3 to return with Rheya to the planet and figure out exactly what's going on here."

"Yes, sir," Jack muttered.

"Thank you, General," Daniel said.

In the gate room Jack waited impatiently for Daniel and Rheya to arrive. SG-3 was already on the other side, along with Sam and Teal'c. He looked at the gate, the door, his watch, and the door again. Finally it opened and Daniel backed in slowly.

"It's alright, no one's going to hurt you," he crooned.

Rheya obviously didn't believe him because there was a loud crash followed by her screams. Jack rolled his eyes and sighed. After much convincing, she finally entered the gate room. Her hands were cuffed, to keep her from grabbing a gun again, and her hair was in her face. The combined effect made her look like someone out of a murder movie. She stared at the gate disbelievingly, and refused to move until Jack pushed her through.

Coming through on the other side, Jack was pleased to see that they'd arrived during the daylight this time. He saw the small dark dot of a goa'uld mother ship in the sky. He wasted no time in calling out orders.

"SG-3, establish a perimeter, secure the gate. Daniel, with me. Carter, Teal'c, stay here and keep an eye on our friend." He looked Rheya straight in the eye. "You, don't move."

She nodded, silently and sat down on the steps. Jack and Daniel moved away toward the village.

"Something's wrong," Jack muttered. "She's too quiet."

"Well what do you want, Jack? You didn't like her when she was talking and you don't like her when she's quiet. What's she supposed to do?"

"I liked her when she was unconscious."

Daniel sighed. "You know I think you don't like her because she's so much like you."

"Excuse me," Jack retorted. "I've never held a gun to Frasier's head, not that I haven't considered it."

They froze at the top of the hill. The village below them was in ruins. Buildings lay on the ground in pieces, and bodies were everywhere. Jack radioed in the news.

"Uh, Carter? We've got a bit of a problem up here."

Back at the gate Rheya heard his words through the radio and bolted to her feet. Before Sam or Teal'c could stop her she was running full speed for the hill. Jack caught her as she reached the top, but by then she had seen the destruction below. She began screaming and flailing.

"You did this! You're responsible! I told you you were killing them!" Gradually her voice lost its volume and anger. "They're dead. No! You killed them!"

Jack let her go and she fell to the ground, crying. Jack and Daniel moved away, out of earshot of the group.

"Happy?" Daniel asked Jack, coldly.

Jack looked him straight in the eye. "Not really. Come on, there's a Gould ship in orbit, we can't stay here."

"Jack, she just found out her whole planet is destroyed. Give her a minute!"

Jack looked at Daniel. With a sigh, he caved. "We can't leave her alone, she'll hurt herself."

"I'll stay with her."

Jack nodded. Together they returned to the top of the hill. "Carter, Teal'c, we'll go report to Hammond, let him know what happened. Daniel's gonna stay with Rheya for a minute. But just a minute." He added, giving Daniel a meaningful look. Daniel nodded.

Jack slipped him a zat as he passed. "Don't get in trouble, ok?" Daniel took it, wordlessly, and then went to join Rheya.

Daniel went over to Rheya. "Here, I don't think we'll be needing these anymore," he said, unfastening her cuffs.

She was on her feet now, looking around. "Is it alright if I-?" she asked, unable to complete her sentence past the lump in her throat. Daniel nodded. She walked down the hill.

They walked through the village in silence. Occasionally Rheya would stop to check a body, or peer inside a house. Daniel crouched by a body. It was wearing the same necklace as Rheya. In fact everyone here was. The slight silver chain had shrunk, tightening around their necks, suffocating them. _Like pet tags, _Daniel thought. _Or slave collars. _

Daniel looked up from where he was crouching to find he was alone. She'd slipped away on him.

"Jack," he called into his radio. "She's gone."

O'Neill, Teal'c and Carter all headed toward the village, top speed, but they were too far to really be any help. Daniel began systematically searching the area. He saw her some distance away, pressing the keys of what appeared to be a ring platform. He reached her just as she was about to enter the last key.

"Don't," he called pointing the zat at her. "Rheya, please."

She looked at him, but said nothing. He could see the tears in her eyes. Silently she shook her head, hit the last key and dove for the platform. Daniel swore and dove after her.

Jack cleared the ridge in time to see Rheya and Daniel ring away to the ship.


	4. Freedom

They rematerialized with a flash of light; luckily the ring room was empty. Before Daniel could get his bearings, Rheya hit him across the back of the head. As he recovered from the blow she grabbed his zat and shot him. He fell to the ground noiselessly.

Rheya looked around. This area of the ship was empty, but there could be jaffa anywhere. She looked at Daniel. She couldn't just leave him there; after all he had tried to help. She sighed and pulled him over to a corner, out of sight behind a pillar. She straightened and gathered her resolve. Silently she made her way to the pel-tak.

Approaching she could see into the room partially. From what she could see there were only a handful of jaffa, and Isis. She snuck up to the door way and paused, not at all sure if she was ready for what she was about to do.

In one motion she turned and shot all the jaffa in the room, and stepped inside.

"Don't move," she yelled to the stunned goddess.

Isis turned to face her. Rheya turned to the control panel and closed the doors. She then shot the panel, frying the circuits shut. Her attention shifted back to Isis.

"We're all alone now," she snarled. "No one's gonna stop me this time."

Jack ran down the hill, Sam and Teal'c weren't far behind. They reached the ring platform and Sam began dialing the keys.

"We're going after them, sir?" she confirmed.

O'Neill nodded. "Yep."

Sam hit the last key and they stepped onto the platform. Rings closed around them, and when they could see again they were on the ship. As the rings lifted, Sam brought her gun up to level and scanned the room. Empty.

Jack began looking behind the pillars, until he found Daniel, unconscious. Crouching down beside him, Jack began shaking Daniel.

"Danny, wake up."

Daniel moaned and rolled over, before startling and jumping into a sitting position.

"Wha…what happened?" he mumbled.

"It looks like your girlfriend's been giving you a hard time," Jack answered. "Any idea where she went?"

Daniel shook his head, and tried to stand.

"Alright, we better go find her then." Jack somehow seemed less than enthusiastic.

Isis raised her hand to activate the ribbon device on Rheya. Rheya squeezed the zat, sending its blue electricity at the goddess. Isis reeled backwards from the hit, and then stood grinning evilly. She raised her hand again.

"Please, stop," Rheya pleaded, holding the zat tighter.

"You won't shoot me again," Isis taunted. "You wouldn't risk killing the host."

She moved closer. Rheya kept the zat between them, unable to make herself shoot again. Isis activated the ribbon, pulling Rheya's life force from her. Isis smiled as she watched the girl hit her knees, helpless.

SG-1 reached the pel-tak.

"I bet she's in there," Daniel muttered.

"Ya think?"

"Sir, the door's been sealed from the inside, it'll take me a minute to get through," Sam reported.

"Well make it a short minute," Jack replied.

Inside, Rheya was giving up. She could hardly think anymore. Everything was becoming muddy, unclear. She was losing. Isis smiled, taunting. Suddenly the doors sprang open. Distracted, Isis looked up. Rheya took the chance, and fired the fatal blow. The god crumpled.

SG-1 stood in the doorway, watching the scene unfold before them. Rheya remained sitting where she was. Daniel walked over to her and crouched down by her, unspeaking. Teal'c checked on Isis.

"She is dead," he said.

"Good," O'Neill replied.

Daniel looked straight into Rheya's eyes, they seemed hollow, lifeless. Finally he broke the silence.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

She stared back at him. "I will be."


	5. Explainations

Back at the SGC, SG-1 sat in the briefing room, along with Hammond and Rheya. Their return had been uneventful and now they were waiting for Rheya to explain herself. Daniel looked at her, sitting across the table, and was surprised to realize that he no longer saw her as young. Behind all her deaperation and anger, there was a normal teenage girl, growing up way faster than she could figure out. He sighed.

"You really wanna know?" she asked, for at least the dozenth time.

Jack was getting annoyed, again. They had been waiting for at least an hour now. "That _is _what we've all been waiting for."

She looked down, planning her words. Obviously this was very painful for her. She was silent for a while and Daniel was almost going to suggest that they come back to this tomorrow, when finally she looked up.

"Ok."

"Thank you!" Jack cried, exasperated.

"It started when I was really little," she started. Her voice was quiet, layered with pain and regret. "The memories, I mean."

"Your first memories when you were little?" Sam asked.

"Yes, but not like you think." She stopped again and Daniel thought for a moment that she wouldn't continue. Eventually she did, but it was obvious she was afraid that what she said would turn them against her.

"Memories of my father."

"Was he a big part of your childhood?" Daniel asked.

"I never met him." She was looking down again.

"Now, see, how is that possible?" Jack asked.

"I'm harsesis."

At thelooks onm their faces she began to talk faster, trying so hard not to lose whatever small seed of friendship or acceptance might have been there.

"Well, half harsesis. My father is Anubis; my mother was not a goa'uld. That's why it took so long to remember, the memories are all subconscious. I need direct stimulation to trigger them. Usually by the time I do, it's too late."

Everyone stared at her, somewhat frightened by this new information.

"Don't worry, the memories are completely in my subconscious, I'm not gonna go goa'uld on you or anything. Besides, Oma teaches –"

"Oh, no please. Not Oma's teachings. Anything but that." Well, at least Jack was paying attention.

"Of course, that makes sense, I don't know why I didn't see it before," Daniel mused.

"Care to share, Danny?" Jack asked sarcastically.

"According to roman mythology Rheya was the daughter of a god, and a human. She was shunned by both sides, being too godly for the humans and too human for the gods. Her sons went on to found Rome; she was killed by her own people."

"Sorry I asked," Jack muttered.

"Soon after I was born my mother escaped Anubis and raised me on a safe planet, Bolden, where you found me," Rheya continued. "When I was about eight the planet was claimed by Isis. The people had never seen anyone with such power, they submitted to her easily. To ensure her authority, Isis ordered a sacrifice every year. The people where only too happy to follow her, but at that order some began to question her. What god kills her own people?

"My mother set up a resistance group, who secretly opposed Isis. We were growing in numbers, in a week we were going to strike, but Isis found out."

Rheya's voice grew quiet, tears were returning to her eyes.

"She killed everyone in our group except my mother and me. She took my mother as her host. That's whyI had to get to that ship alone,I had to face her. "

Sam was the first to put two and two together. "So when you killed Isis on the ship…Oh God…Rheya…"

Rheya was crying freely now. "It's what she would have wanted," she whispered, butit soundlya lotlike she was trying to convince herself. Daniel tried to get the conversation off of that particular pain.

"What happened to you? When Isis found out?" he asked gently.

"When she found out who I am, _what _I am, she took me to run experiments. She wanted all of Anubis' secrets and she thought I had them." Her voice was filled with hate.

"Do you not?" Teal'c asked.

"No! Well not where I can get to them. I can't just call them up; I have to actually see something to remember about it. It's not assimple as you'd think."

"What type of experiments did she run?" Sam asked.

"She put stuff in my blood, stuff a symbiote does to you. She tried to get one of those chemicals to trigger the memories, to make me a goa'uld without a snake. It didn't work."

"That would explain the naquadah and proteins that Janet found," Sam commented.

"When she couldn't get my memories, she wanted to make sure no one else could. So she sent me back to the planet and played the villagers against me. She told themI was evil. ThatI had the demon's tougch upon me. To please their god, they made me the yearly sacrifice. Then you stepped in."

Silent tears covered her face. Her hand went to her necklace.

"After the rebellion was destroyed, she gave everyone these. Everyone thought they were such a great gift from a goddess, but I knew better. They're slave collars to keep anyone from running. I always thought they would kill the escapee, but when you told me I was on another planet and I wasn't dead I figured it out. Its kills everyone else so that you have to live, knowing you killed them."

The tears came harder.

"They died, all of them,to save my life. I'm not worth that."

Everyone was silent, unsure what to say, how to comfort her. The truth was everything about this situation was wrong. The cruelty, the decisions, the sacrifices. Everything.

Rheya looked completely broken. She'd really lost everything now.

"What'll you do now?" Hammond asked gently.

"I have heard of a resistance, the Tok'ra. Are they real?"

"Oh yeah. They're real. Really, really annoying," Jack put in.

Rheya smiled, barely. "If they are real then I would like to join them."

Daniel frowned. "Isn't that…umm…well, I mean, with your past…"

"I think what Danny's trying so eloquently to say is, after all your experience with the goa'uld, are you sure you wanna turn around a put a snake in you head? You do realize that's what they'll make you do, if you join them," Jack said.

"What else can I do?" It was obvious that that wasn't at all what she wanted, but she couldn't see any other way.

It was Jack's turn to be at a loss for words. "Well…um…there's always, well."

"What Jack's saying is you're welcome to join us."

"He is?"

"I am?"

"Yes," Daniel answered. "Stay here, help us. We'd be happy to have you."

"Yes, we would." Jack said sincerely, and Sam and Hammond nodded.

Rheya seemed to have finally found a purpose, there was a new hope in her eye, and an energy to her actions that hadn't been there before. There was one thing still on her mind though.

"You'd do that?" she grew timid. "Even after what I did?"

Jack looked thoughtful. "Yeah, you did put a few holes in the infirmary, didn't you?"

Rheya winced. Jack shrugged.

"I never liked the infirmary anyway."

Rheya smiled. A true, heartfelt smile. The first any of them had ever seen on her face. Daniel smiled too; Jack could be good with kids when he wanted to.

"Alright, it's settled then," Hammond concluded.

Sam led Rheya down a hallway.

"It's a bit dreary," she said. "But I'm sure it's nothing a few coats of paint couldn't fix. You'll have to live on base for a while, at least until we find a family you could live with, one that already knows about the stargate program."

"It's ok, I feel safer on base," Rheya answered.

Inside the room, Sam was bouncing all over pointing out various aspects of the room, which weren't much, but Rheya hardly noticed. She was still realizing where her life was taking her. Part of her was still suspicious, always thinking that everything was too good to be true, wonderinghow muchthey would want in return, and if she'd be able, or willing, to give it to them. But little by little she was starting to relax, to accept, to adjust. She'd been granted a second chance, but at a great price.

She would be sure to make the best of it.


End file.
